Does Trump’s victory indicate declining interest in “morality”?

[darklordoftech]

We all remember what a circus Lewinsky was and how Hart was brought down by an affair.

[AtorBoltox]

Republican voters only ever cared if it was a democrat who had an affair

[Mr. Smith]

Republican voters only ever cared if it was a democrat who had an affair

That's why LBJ defeated Nelson Rockefeller in a landslide with absolutely crushing numbers in The Solid South.

[IceSpear]

Republican voters only ever cared if it was a democrat who had an affair

They also happily vote for "baby killers" like Scott DesJarlais.

[Xing]

It merely exposed that all prior "interest" in morality was merely virtue signaling.

[Sumner 1868]

He's a side affect of secularism, yes. In the primaries Drumpf consistently did among his best with Republicans who were not religious. A trend foreshadowed by the heavy public opposition to the Clinton impeachment, amusingly enough.

I'm not sure why so many Democrats are so obsessed with reliving the late 20th century religious debates. Most of those evangelicals are dead now, and the few left have no influence on cultural politics in any way at this point (I would argue they never really did). Talk about a Sore Winner Syndrome.

[darklordoftech]

I'm not sure why so many Democrats are so obsessed with reliving the late 20th century religious debates.

Which debates are you referring to?

[Sumner 1868]

I'm not sure why so many Democrats are so obsessed with reliving the late 20th century religious debates.

Which debates are you referring to?

The sparring with evangelicals in the 1980s and 1990s over "family values", gay rights, and the role of religion in the general culture. I truly don't understand it in the slightest, since the religious right lost every single battle. Reeks of being a sore winner.

[darklordoftech]

I'm not sure why so many Democrats are so obsessed with reliving the late 20th century religious debates.

Which debates are you referring to?

The sparring with evangelicals in the 1980s and 1990s over "family values", gay rights, and the role of religion in the general culture. I truly don't understand it in the slightest, since the religious right lost every single battle. Reeks of being a sore winner.

A possible reason is that a big part of the Democratic base is people who think Republicans are puritans who want to tell people what to do in the bedroom and want to control women and hate gays. Without these issues, social liberals, feminists, LGBT rights supporters, etc. would stay home. Also, where a candidate stands on these issues tells voters what kind of justices they’ll appoint to the SCOTUS. There’s also people who remember what things were like before Roe v. Wade and are terrified of a return to that.

[morgankingsley]

Surprisingly not

[Basil]

I don't think so. The reason why sex scandals caused so much controversy in the later 20th century is that before, they just weren't reported on. The media never covered JFK's numerous affairs, for example. That changed with Watergate and every journalist thought they could be the next Woodward and Bernstein, so everything and anything got reported on. Today, we've been de-sensitized to it, we don't expect politicians to be any better than the rest of us.

It's not so much that Americans aren't interested in morality anymore. We just don't care about sex scandals.

[Non Swing Voter]

No, it indicates that the two parties have become so far apart that voters are transactional in their decision making and vote for whatever position or candidate will get their people in power. 

[Annatar]

Trump won the nomination because the importance of religion is declining, the religious right will disappear over the next few cycles and be replaced by the nationalist right. The religious right failed in every way and the nationalist right is not handicapped to the same extent by concerns about morality or ethics which will make it more effective in opposing the  left than the religious right was.

The argument for trump morally speaking basically was that the left had destroyed all sense of morality and tradition during the cultural revolution of the 1960’s and the right worrying about such things was simply putting it at a disadvantage, therefore the right should adopt the left’s utilitarian approach to politics, I think going forward most republican voters will support this position as it makes sense and allows for a more even contest.

[Agonized-Statism]

Trump won the nomination because the importance of religion is declining, the religious right will disappear over the next few cycles and be replaced by the nationalist right. The religious right failed in every way and the nationalist right is not handicapped to the same extent by concerns about morality or ethics which will make it more effective in opposing the  left than the religious right was.

The argument for trump morally speaking basically was that the left had destroyed all sense of morality and tradition during the cultural revolution of the 1960’s and the right worrying about such things was simply putting it at a disadvantage, therefore the right should adopt the left’s utilitarian approach to politics, I think going forward most republican voters will support this position as it makes sense and allows for a more even contest.

Absolutely this. The GOP's struggle this decade has been all about the vacuum left by the death of the religious right. Is the populist right the next dominant paradigm in the party? Uncertain. If racial polarization continues, and/or progressives win in the Democratic Party, we could see suburban whites come home and complicate the party's economic views. My guess is that social utilitarianism is here to stay in the Republican Party, but we haven't seen the last of "globalism" on the economic side.

[darklordoftech]

Perhaps Gingrich winning South Carolina and Georgia forshadowed that Trump’s “immorality” wouldn’t stop him?

[Stranger in a strange land]

Yes: interesting how you never hear Republican politicians talking about "family values" anymore: it's too much cognitive dissonance even for them.

[HAnnA MArin County]

He's a side affect of secularism, yes. In the primaries Drumpf consistently did among his best with Republicans who were not religious. A trend foreshadowed by the heavy public opposition to the Clinton impeachment, amusingly enough.

I'm not sure why so many Democrats are so obsessed with reliving the late 20th century religious debates. Most of those evangelicals are dead now, and the few left have no influence on cultural politics in any way at this point (I would argue they never really did). Talk about a Sore Winner Syndrome.

Hmm.. let's see: the wedding cake controversy, North Carolina's bathroom bill, Kim Davis, all within the past few years. You can still be fired for being gay in a majority of states and there are still other human rights issues out there where it's perfectly okay to discriminate against LGBTQIA people.

I agree that the Religious Right's political clout is (thankfully) significantly waning, but that's all the more reason why people should care and pay attention. Look at what's happening with the Trumpification of the Republican Party. They know that demographics are eventually going to reduce them to third-party status as their base of angry old white heterosexual men slowly but surely die off and that's why they're engaging in voter disenfranchisement and suppression efforts across the country to prevent racial minorities from voting. The Religious Right is no different. They hope that people assume that just because marriage equality is the law of the land that that means that everything is equal for LGBTQIA people in other aspects of their lives in hopes of those supporters becoming complacent. No, the Religious Right is trying to go out with a bang, and we need to STAY WOKE so that we can fight them on every issue to the bitter end when they can no longer impose their discriminatory religious beliefs on everyone else. 

[Amenhotep Bakari-Sellers]

Yes, Biden and his sex harrassment hasnt been mentioned the whole campaign.